An aerodrome licence has been given for the airport by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority, which currently manages it.
Confirming the news, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, “It is a major boost for air connectivity in Uttarakhand, especially in the Kumaon region. We want to thank PM Narendra Modi and the civil vviation ministry.” The Uttarakhand cabinet had earlier approved handing over of the strategically-placed Naini Saini airport to the Indian Air Force even as commercial flights would continue to operate from it. As of now, the airport, made in 1991 for administrative use, is operated by the state civil aviation department. The airstrip, 1,508 metres long, is currently used by the state-owned Pawan Hans heli services for mostly chopper landings and take-offs, which don’t happen on a regular basis.
A nine-seater commercial airplane service had been started from the airport in January 2019 but it stopped in March 2020 due to technical glitches. Uttarakhand has two major airports. Jolly Grant in Dehradun, in Garhwal division of the state, has flight services to several cities. A less busy one, Pantnagar airport in Udham Singh Nagar, serves the Kumaon region and has daily flights to Delhi and to Jaipur via Ahmedabad.